Fun at home...Pool...Elk Ridge Park

Here are a few pictures of the kids playing at home:

We found this play house on craig's list and the kids are really enjoying having it in the yard

Cute picture of our little man

Saturday morning we headed over to the rec center to meet up with friends of ours to celebrate Cate's friend Camilla's birthday.  Our family and Camilla's family all went swimming together.  We had a fantastic time with them.  Here is a picture of Cate and Ashton in the locker room ready to go swimming:

Elk Ridge Park:

The woman who watches our kids while I work took the kids to a new park nearby on Friday and told me all about it when I picked the kids up.  It sounded amazing so Eric and I decided to take the kids there on Saturday to check it out for ourselves.  It was a 2.5 million dollar project and it was just recently opened.  It has a great park with very innovative play equipment, a great turf soccer/lacrosse field, and 2 different treasure hunt walking trails.  It is an amazing park and it is great that it is so close to our house.  Here are some pictures from the park:

To get to this slide there are stairs for the little ones on the left and giant rocks for the older kids to climb on the right

Here is the "little kid" area.  Ashton wasn't too interested in the smaller slide.

This thing spins around when someone pushes it.  This was the main attraction at the park for kids of all ages.  It is like "where's waldo" trying to find Cate.

Ashton and Cate took a turn pushing all of the kids on the ride.  They must be "super kids" because they were able to push all of those kids!

For the Easter weekend we headed up to Steamboat to spend some time with Grammy, Grandpa Rlowe, and Uncle Q.  The weather was really nice and we had a wonderful weekend.  Here are some pictures from our Easter weekend:

Grammy and Cate dying Easter eggs together

Ashton was more interested in playing with his trucks while they dyed Easter eggs

Ashton running around outside playing fetch with the dogs

Cate lounging on the ski lift swing watching the dogs

Daddy and the kids.  (I love the view!)

We put Ashton to work shoveling gravel :)
He found this shovel and loved moving the gravel back and forth

Cate wanted a turn and then realized that she didn't think it was very fun

My mom, Eric, and I took the dogs for a walk

The river was beautiful with the ice on the rocks

Eric with the 3 dogs

Later that day we took the kids swimming at Old Town Hot Springs.  The pools are very warm and the kids had a blast swimming

HIGHER, HIGHER

What lucky kids

Cate and Grandpa Rlowe

Cate was so excited to wear her Easter dress.  She looks so grown up

Posing for a picture before hunting for their Easter baskets

They found them!

Checking out the baskets to see what they got

Ashton hunting for Easter eggs

Cate and Mommy

Checking out what is in all of the eggs

Grammy made bunny shaped cinnamon rolls for the kids for breakfast

Before heading home the kids went for one last ride on Ranger Rick

We had a great weekend up in Steamboat.  It is amazing how much stuff we packed in to one weekend.  

swimming lessons

Cate is still taking swim lessons at the rec center.  She is really enjoying them and getting much more comfortable in the water.  Here are some pictures from a recent lesson:

Inside Day

Today it snowed a bunch and was pretty cold out so it was an inside day.  The weather has been so nice lately that the kids were very sad that we couldn't play outside today.  So I came up with a plan to entertain them today.  With Cate's help, I made a gas station and a store out of boxes, rope, and a toilet paper roll.  I hooked the rope and toilet paper roll together and then attached them to a box to make a gas pump.  Then I cut a box open and made a store counter that the kids could go behind.  Then a brought in their car, trikes, shopping cart, and pretend food for them to play with.  Lastly I put painters tape on the floor to make parking places.  They had a great time playing with all of this today.  I am really happy that the front room in our house is empty.  It was the perfect spot for our little town today.

After the kids went "shopping", they had snack at the table

lollipop park

Yesterday Grandma came over to spend some time with the kids and then to go with us to lollipop park.  She brought over her sewing machine to help Cate fix her Cinderella dress and then they made a blanket for her doll Lanie.  

Lollipop park is an indoor carnival for young kids.  There were a bunch of different rides for the kids to go on.  At the place they only run one ride at a time and then all of the kids get off that ride and head to the next one.  So for 2 hours the kids went from ride to ride to ride.  They had a blast.  At first they weren't too sure about the rides so Grandma and I went on them with them.  Once they were used to the rides they wanted to go by themselves.  Here are some pictures from all of the rides:

They had a ferris wheel and you got to ride in hot air balloons.  Cate rode with Grandma the first time and Ashton was in with me.

Next were the tea cups.  Grandma and Mommy both told the kids that we didn't want to spin fast.  Some of the kids in the other cups were spinning so fast.

Cate and I rode together

Next was the Whip it ride.  It's name explains the ride well.  Cathy and I weren't too sure if they kids would like it but there were a bunch of other little kids going on it.  So we went for it and put the kids on the ride.  They giggled so much on this ride.  They really enjoyed it.

Here is a video of the kids on the "whip it" ride

The next ride was the train.  Ashton was dying to go on the train.  He had a hard time waiting until it was time for the train.  They got to ride in the caboose and loved it.  

On the next go around they did the rides together without Mommy or Grandma.  I love seeing them in the tea cup together.

On the whip it ride again.  (By this point I was getting dizzy just watching them go on the rides)

Here they are on the carousel.  Ashton looks so thrilled :)

At the end Ashton decided that he wanted to go in the hot air balloon without Mommy or Grandma.  

It was a lot of fun to take the kids to Lollipop park.  They had so much fun!